Kate Yesberg | Nina XIII-XVII: {Suite} Ponsonby

This is Kate Yesberg’s first solo exhibition at {Suite} Ponsonby and a continuation of her series Nina. Comprising elaborate compositions of colour and strong geometric form, these new large-scale paintings pack a punch.

Kate names each series for its intrinsic energy; a mood, feeling, or experience that emerges through the abstraction and process of creation. She explains, “The ideas come into my imagination. Usually colours, combinations of colour, or simple shapes or compositions. But mostly I feel them, I feel the energy I want them to carry.”

As a series, Nina has been germinating since mid-2020, when, after several miscarriages, Kate and her husband decided to stop trying for a baby. Though for Kate, the paintings feel grounded and self-assured; they are embodiments of a journey, a process that has at times oscillated unforgivingly from acceptance to resistance, refusal to release, and back again, though has ultimately yielded resolution and a decision to allow things to be as they are.  The artist explains, “as I’ve worked into these paintings, the energy has become stronger; it feels full of potential, almost exhilarating. I feel like I’m coming into myself, learning how to hold things more lightly and to love them as they are.”

Kate builds her paintings up layer by layer from a black canvas as an act of devotional labour that is performed by hand, without tape or calibration. The effect is striking patterns which from afar suggest hard-lines and manicured designs, though up close reveal the hand that rendered them and its human imperfection.